


Twelve Days of Christmas

by Witch_Bomb



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Christmas fic, Everyone is shipped with everyone, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Modern AU, Mostly Fluff, Multi, everyone is a little shit, everyone is bi, some angst in later chapters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-14 02:23:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 18,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12997746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Witch_Bomb/pseuds/Witch_Bomb
Summary: A short series of ficlets for Christmas.





	1. Day 1 - Ajeel x Invel

The ice rink lay empty, an open expanse of pale grey before him. Heaps of snow lining the sides of the rink made the whole scene appear like a monochrome photo.

Ajeel shivered. How the cold had managed to pierce through his scarf, two pairs of gloves, hat, coat, and two sweaters was a mystery, but no way was he heading back home now. Pulling his coat more tightly around himself, he shuffled towards the rink and tentatively slid out onto the ice.

He fell immediately.

Far above, grey clouds had begun to gather – an omen of the oncoming snowstorm. He would need to get back home before the weather got too bad, yet his determination to win this bet outweighed his fear of the cold.

With the grace of a newborn horse, Ajeel regained his balance and began to slide across the ice, arms out at his sides like a scarecrow to keep his balance. Gaining confidence, he moved faster, skidding forward – only to slip again.

Peeling his face off the ice, he stood in a crouch. Perhaps he just needed to start off small. He hunched his back and shuffled across the ice, only semi-aware of how ridiculous he looked and hoping to god nobody could see him right now.

It seemed the odds weren’t in his favour today, for that thought had only just passed through his head when he heard a chuckle from the side of the frozen pond. Spinning around and slipping over backwards again, he sat upright and glared at the man. “What’re you laughing at, asshole?”

The young man remained completely poker-faced somehow. “You don’t know how to skate, do you?”

Ajeel stared blankly at him. He’d seen that man before, at college before winter break. They even had a few classes together – his name was Invel, if Ajeel remembered correctly. But he’d never known that they lived in the same town. “None of your business! Why are you even here?”

“Because I wanted to skate. Is that a problem?” Raising an eyebrow, Invel slid out onto the ice, gliding over to where Ajeel crouched and extending a hand to him. “Come on. It will be easier if you stand.”

Ajeel only glared, managing to push himself to his feet out of sheer spite. “You trying to teach me to skate or something? Because I can handle myself.”

“No. I’m sure you’re completely capable of teaching yourself.” Was it Ajeel’s imagination, or was there an edge of sarcasm in his voice? “You simply looked like you needed some help.”

“Well, I don’t.”

“Alright then.” Invel skated away to the opposite side of the rink, sparing only occasional glances at Ajeel as he slid around.

Ajeel alternated between glaring at him and staring down at his feet, clumsily attempting to imitate his motions. He grinned smugly as he finally managed to glide forward the same way Invel did –

And then he fell. Again.

“You’re getting the hang of this.”

“Don’t mock me.”

“I wasn’t.”

Invel skated in a neat curve on the other end of the rink, one leg in the air behind him. Ajeel glared at him. “Quit being a show-off!”

“What? It’s a public rink.” Invel stopped, folding his arms and glaring at Ajeel. “Do you want me to stop skating to boost your self-esteem or something?”

“No! I want you to stop showing off! It’s like you’re rubbing the fact that you’re better at this than me in my face!”

He sighed and rubbed his temples. “…Look, I just came out here to skate. I’ll leave you alone if you leave me alone, alright?”

Ajeel fell silent, not sure how to respond to that. He watched as Invel turned away from him and returned to skating. “Uh…”

“What?”

“I, uh… Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Invel paused. “Sorry if I ruined this for you.”

“No, no. I guess I shouldn’t have been trying to teach myself to skate, huh?”

Invel blinked, turning toward him. “What are you talking about? Lots of people are self-taught.”

“Yeah, but…” Ajeel sighed. “I’m kinda trying to win a bet. With that guy Serena from our English class. I don’t know if I can achieve that by myself. So…” He gulped. “Will you, uh… help me?”

“Didn’t you say you didn’t want my help?”

“Yeah, but…” He paused. “Y’know, I don’t think I’m getting anywhere here.”

“Alright. I’ll teach you.” For the first time, Ajeel saw the faintest trace of a smile on Invel’s face. “The first step is to learn how to keep your balance…”

Their gloved hands locked together. Invel drifted backwards, tugging Ajeel after him.

“So… you wanted to learn how to skate for… a bet?”

“Yeah.” Ajeel shrugged. “Serena’s just… kind of a narcissist, y’know? He’s the kind of guy you want to prove wrong.”

“Oh, I know. We used to have bets like that all the time. Only it was usually over academics.”

Ajeel snorted. “Wow. You never seemed like the competitive type to me.”

“You’d be surprised.” Invel hesitated. “I didn’t think you were the type to want to learn how to skate, honestly. Even for a bet.”

“Why not?”

“You don’t like the cold. I mean… how many sweaters are you wearing?”

“Only two!” Ajeel burst out laughing. “Hey, it’s less than I wore the first year I moved to this city.”

Invel smiled, and Ajeel suddenly became aware that they were drifting away from each other, his hands suddenly empty. He stumbled for a moment – before realizing that he was keeping his balance just fine without Invel.

“Hey… whoa!”

“See? You can do it without my help.” He paused. “Focus!”

“I am focusing!” Ajeel glared down at the ice, concentrating hard. “Hey, think I can do the thing you do? Where you sort of do this, but on one foot?”

“…Maybe not quite yet.” Invel shook his head. “But we’ll get there.”

\---

Snowflakes drifted from the sky and settled delicately, like a frosting of icing sugar on the rink. Two figures, clad in thick winter coats, strode away from the empty grey expanse, two pairs of skates hanging from their hands.

“I’d say we were fairly successful.”

Ajeel grinned. “Think Serena will finally admit I’m better than him?”

“Knowing him… probably not.”

“True.” They walked in silence for a long moment. “So, uh… where are we going now?”

Invel shrugged. “I don’t know. I was thinking of heading over to that café on the hill and getting a coffee or something. Do you want to come with me?”

“Sure!” Ajeel peered up ahead to see the café perched atop the hill, warm light flickering from its windows through the snow. He sped up, snow clinging to his boots as he dashed up the hill. Behind him, he heard Invel jogging to keep up.

The bell chimed overhead as they pushed open the door, blasted with warm air almost the moment they stepped inside. It only took a moment to order and receive their drinks; they headed to a tiny, unoccupied table in the corner, right next to the window.

Invel stared out at the snow as it began to pick up, gathering on the ground in heaps of white. “How long were we out there?”

“I dunno. Couple of hours, maybe.” Ajeel took a sip of his drink. “…It was fun.”

“It was.” Invel paused. “Would you like to go skating again sometime? Not for lessons or anything. Just for fun.”

Ajeel put down his cup, staring at him. He’d only really wanted to learn how to skate to prove to Serena that he could match him in skill with enough practice – never had he considered that he might actually enjoy it. “Sure. Want to exchange numbers? …Just so we can get in contact more easily, y’know?”

“Sure.” Invel pulled his phone out of his coat pocket, tapping in his passcode and handing it to Ajeel. Quickly entering his number in Ajeel’s phone, he handed it back, glancing out of the window. “…Looks like the storm’s picking up.”

“Yeah.” Ajeel shrugged. “We can stay here for a while. Gramps isn’t expecting me to be back home until way later.”

“Same here.” Invel turned back toward him. “Let’s just wait it out.”

Silently, they both stared out the window, watching as the pale ice rink at the bottom of the hill vanished under a blanket of snow.


	2. Day 2 - Anna x Irene

Families and couples clad in winter coats and hats strode by outside. Their lips moved silently as they spoke, words inaudible through the glass separating Anna from the rest of the world.

The bookstore was always busiest at this time of year, but that still wasn’t saying much. Anna sighed, turning her gaze to the clock: only fifteen minutes to closing time.

Perhaps she should lock up the store early. After all, the afternoon rush was long over – and the families passing by outside didn’t look particularly interested in her shop. Yet somewhere deep within her was the tiniest glimmer of hope that she might get just one more customer tonight.

The minutes dragged by, and nobody appeared in the doorway. Anna began to doze off against the counter.

Only moments later, she snapped awake to the ringing chime of her door bell. Regaining her composure as quickly as she could, she folded her hands on the counter before her and put on her most winning smile. “Good evening! Welcome to Anna’s Book Store. How can I help you?”

A woman stepped over the threshold, flicking back her hood to reveal long waves of blindingly red hair. Her eyes swept the bookshelves appraisingly, taking in the countless ragged novels, the wooden shelves, and finally settling on Anna. “I’m looking for a gift for my daughter.”

“Of course! Feel free to browse as long as you need.”

“Thank you.” The woman’s lip quirked up into a smile as she strode past. “I hope I didn’t come in at an inconvenient time.”

“Not at all. Let me know if there’s anything I can help you with.”

The woman vanished into the maze of bookshelves, slim fingers dancing over the colourful spines of countless books. “So… do you have any good novels that would be appropriate for a girl around nine years old?”

“Of course. Those are at the back.” Grateful for the excuse to finally move from her stool, Anna stepped out from behind the counter and strode towards the back of the store. “What kind of genre are you looking for?”

“I’m not sure. Her interests, in terms of genres, are kind of all over the place.” She glanced along the shelf. “I think fantasy or adventure would be a safe bet…”

“Probably. Lots of kids like those.” Anna scanned the bookshelf, picking out a book and handing it to the customer. “How about this one?”

“Hmm…” She flipped through the book, her brows furrowing. “Maybe. I’d like to see more than one before making a decision, though.”

"This one might be good, too.”

“It certainly looks like something she’d enjoy...”

Within a few minutes, the customer had a heap of books beside her, perching on the edge of the coffee table (much to Anna’s irritation) and flicking through the pages. From her stool behind the counter, Anna watched, glancing down to see which book she was reading.

“I think this one is good.”

Anna smiled. “Is that the one you’d like to buy?”

“Yes.” Hopping down from the coffee table, she strode over to the counter and dumped a single book on the surface. “How much?”

"Twenty dollars.”

“Thanks.” She paused, glancing at the stack of tomes still on the coffee table. “Want me to put those back, too?”

“Don’t worry about it. I always clear up the books that are lying around before I close up.” Anna smiled and handed her the book. “Would you like a bag for that?”

The customer nodded, taking the paper bag from Anna and dropping the book in, along with the receipt. Ignoring Anna’s claim that she would clean up the books herself, she took the extra books and unceremoniously stuffed them into any open space on the back shelves she could find.

Shaking her head, Anna began shoving her belongings back into her purse. Pulling her jacket on and grabbing her umbrella, she strode to the front of the store and flipped the sign over to “closed”. The clicking of heels on the pinewood floor behind her told her that the customer was heading out, too. She shot the woman another smile over her shoulder. “Thanks! Have a great day.”

“You, too.” The woman hesitated, staring at the door.

It was the pattering of rain against the glass that finally brought Anna to the realization that it had started to rain – and that her customer didn’t have an umbrella. “Oh… Are you walking home?”

“Yes.” She shrugged. “I only live up on Queens Avenue. It’s not that far.”

Anna’s eyes widened. “It’s still too far to walk in this weather! And that jacket is hardly waterproof…” She paused. “I’ll tell you what. I only live a block or so away from Queens Avenue, and I have an umbrella. Why don’t we walk back together?”

“Well… I see no reason why not, if you live that close.” She pulled her hood back up. “Let’s go.”

Outside, Anna locked up the store and stepped out into the rain, followed closely by the customer. They turned and headed in the direction of Queens Avenue, accompanied only by the pattering of rain against the umbrella.

“So… you’re Anna, right?”

“Mhm. You could tell by the name of the bookstore?”

“Yes.” She chuckled. “I’m Irene. Your bookstore is quite nice, by the way. Do you run it by yourself?”

“I have a few part-time workers. They keep the store in order and help customers out.”

“Lovely.” Irene turned to look straight ahead. “I might come back later in the month. I still haven’t checked off everyone I need to buy gifts for…”

Anna smiled. “Books do make a great gift.”

“Might buy something for myself sometime, too.”

They walked in silence for awhile. Anna cleared her throat. “So… you like reading, too, then?”

“Yes. There isn’t a lot else to do in this part of town, to be honest.” Irene shrugged. “I’m in a book club, too. It’s good for free food.”

Anna stopped. “Wait, there’s a book club around here?”

“Yes. We only started a couple of weeks ago, though, so it’s not a very big group yet.”

“Do you know who I need to talk to if I want to join?”

“Just send me an email if you want to. Hang on, I’ll write it down.”

They stopped completely as Irene pulled a notebook out of her pocket and scribbled something down. She ripped the page out and handed it to Anna.  
“There!”

“Thank you!” Anna folded the paper neatly and shoved it into her pocket. She peered up the hill. “Oh, we’re almost at Queens Avenue.”

Irene nodded. “My house is that one. With the black gates out front.”

“Only a little farther.”

Anna stopped outside of the iron gates. They slid open with an echoing creak when Irene pushed them, fishing around in her pocket for her keys as she headed up the pathway towards her house.

“Thanks for walking me home, by the way.” She turned and smiled at Anna. “I’ll let the others in the book club know about your shop. I think they’ll like it, too.”

Anna smiled back at her. “Thank you. I’ll email you about that club tomorrow.” She turned to head down the block to her own house. “Goodnight!”

“Goodnight.”

Irene’s keys clicked in the lock, and the door slid open silently. She watched Anna’s retreating back for a few moments, before turning and stepping inside.


	3. Day 3 - Serena x Larcade

Larcade was beginning to wonder if his efforts to get out of the house were really worth it.

            Sure, decorating the town square’s Christmas tree was better than being stuck at home, and volunteering for something felt good. But his hands had gone numb even beneath his wool gloves, and apparently shoppers thought it was funny to throw snowballs at the volunteers. Jacob was spending more time warding off unruly teenagers than he was helping with the decorations.

            At the very least, with calm determination, they had managed to get somewhere. The colourful lights and tinsel wound in a spiral around the tree, all the way up to the top branch where the glimmering star sat like a lone house atop a mountain.

            The only problem was that they couldn’t agree on how the rest of the decorations should be placed.

            Serena had some very specific ideas about the way the tree should be decorated. He had more or less taken control of the group by this point: they had to put a bauble here, one higher up – the tree had to look its absolute best. Overall, Larcade thought, he was far too into the whole decorating thing.

            Balancing atop a stool, he hung a sparkling glass bauble on a high branch, reaching to the other side to place the one in his right hand. Decorations didn’t need to be placed so meticulously as Serena insisted; he was doing this for fun, after all.

            “Larcade, honey, nonono… you can’t put that shade of green next to a gold one. It looks too bland. You need a red one there.”

            “I see no reason why it has to be so specific,” Larcade answered. “It looks good no matter how we place them.”

            Serena hopped onto the stool, peering at the decorations Larcade had placed. “But come on, it’s _all_ green and gold over here. Where’s the colour? The _sparkle?_ They’re just these plain old shiny ones, too. We need more of the glittery ones. Here, pass me that one at the top of the pile – I can fix this…”

            Larcade raised an eyebrow, but handed him the object anyway. It was a glittering, spiralling cone of red, and much larger than the baubles Larcade had scattered around the branches.

            “There! That should fix it up.” Serena stepped down from the stool and patted Larcade on the shoulder as he strode by. “Use more colourful ones now!”

            “…Alright, then.”

            Grabbing another handful from the box, Larcade took his place on the stool and began to add brightly-coloured decorations to the tree – purples, blues, reds and golds. From the opposite side of the tree, he could hear Serena lecturing an indignant Dimaria about colour coordination.

            He paid it no mind.

            Humming to himself, he scooped a glittering silver bauble from the box and hung it alongside the red cone Serena had placed minutes before.

            “Hmm. The red and blue ones don’t really match that well. Why not move the blue ones somewhere else?”

            Larcade shrugged. “I like them better there.”

            “And you’re making the same mistake again, honey. It needs more glitter! More variety of shape! Not just these boring spheres!” Serena waved his hands vaguely at the tree. “Come on, I know you can do better than this!”

            “It looks good either way. How about you focus on your own side of the tree?”

            Serena struck a pose. “I simply cannot ignore such an abomination! Here, let me help you with that.”

            “No, it’s fine–”

            “Let me help!”

            Larcade stood back, the beginnings of irritation settling within him. Still, he watched in silence as Serena began to rearrange the decorations he had so carefully placed, shifting the display to his liking. What was even the point of trying to decorate with him around? Serena may as well just do the whole thing himself if he was going to be this way.

            After several minutes of watching Serena alter his work beyond recognition, Larcade came to a decision. He strode around the base of the tree to the side Dimaria and a few others had been working on.

            “Did Serena decorate this part?”

            “Huh?” Dimaria turned to him. “…More like rearranged it after _I_ decorated it.”

            “So he’s doing it to you, too.”

            “He’s doing it to everyone.”

            “Then how about this?” Larcade leaned in to whisper his plan. “Let’s just rearrange everything he does. Maybe if we piss him off enough, he’ll stop.”

            Dimaria’s eyes lit up. “Sounds good to me. Which part first?”

            “This one. Once he leaves the part I did alone, we’ll do that one, too.”

            “Alright. Let’s do this.”

 

Minutes later, Serena strode around to Dimaria’s side of the tree – and gasped.

            “Dimaria! Why did you change it back?”

            “Because I like it better this way.” She smirked down at him from her place on the stool. “Got a problem with that?”

            “All the plain ones are in the same place! There’s no… sparkle!” He clutched dramatically at his chest. “Step down from there. Let me fix this.”

            “No. It’s _my_ side of the tree. Go do your own.”

            “Are you really going to be so childish about this?”

            “Who’s being childish again?” Dimaria folded her arms. “Who’s been walking around, trying to make everyone do everything _exactly_ to his liking? Go bother someone else. Or, I dunno, actually do something productive.”

            “Look, I just want the tree to look–”

            “To look what? Absolutely _perfect?_ What are you, a volunteer or a warden?”

            He sighed. “…Maybe Larcade will be more reasonable.”

            “Doubt it.”

            “I’ll try.” He headed around to the opposite side. “Larcade, are you rearranging it too?”

            “Yes,” Larcade replied. “Let me guess: it’s not… sparkly enough?” He smiled down at Serena, chuckling to himself.

            “Well… yes.” Serena sighed. “Did you two plan this?”

            Larcade paused. “Listen, Serena. Beauty is subjective. What looks good to you looks absolutely garish to Dimaria and I. Even if it were ugly, what does it matter? It’s just a Christmas tree.”

            “But it’s… you know… in the middle of the town square.” Serena gestured around them. “ _Hundreds_ of people are going to see this on a daily basis! Don’t you think we should make it look a bit nicer than just a tree with decorations scattered around thoughtlessly?”

            “Hmm… Not really.” Larcade shook his head. “The decorations are designed to match anyway. They’ll look fine no matter how we arrange them. Why don’t you focus on decorating the tree instead of just rearranging what we’ve already placed?”

            Serena fell silent. Larcade smiled to himself, hearing the footsteps padding away through the snow and assuming he had won.

            How wrong he was. Moments after Serena had left, Larcade was struck in the back with a ball of hard-packed snow. He turned, eyes wide, to see Serena preparing a second one.

            Clearly, there was only one solution to this.

            Gritting his teeth, Larcade hopped down from the stool and began to gather snow, ducking away as another snowball grazed his ear. Standing up to his full height, he hurled the snowball with his full strength, watching as it slammed into the front of Serena’s coat. Serena, however, had prepared an armful of snowballs by now, and was tossing them rapidly, forcing him to dive and duck away from them – no time to prepare more snowballs of his own.

            “Oh, he’s good.” Larcade dove behind the Christmas tree to pack the snow together into a hard ball.

            Dimaria quirked an eyebrow at him. “What are you doing?”

            “It seems we have to resort to… somewhat less peaceful methods.”

            “Seems dumb.” She rolled her eyes. “Hey, don’t throw that! It’ll hit the tree!”

            “Sacrifices need to be made in a war!” He darted out from behind the tree and began throwing the hard-packed balls of snow. Serena dodged most, but a good few met their mark on his coat. He dove back behind the barricade of the tree as Serena hurled another few in retaliation.

            “You two are being way too dramatic about this.”

            “What do you expect from Serena?”

            “You _both_ need to grow up…”

            Larcade stepped out, ignoring Dimaria’s words – only to stumble backwards. Looking up, he found Serena standing over him with a massive pack of snow in his hands and an equally massive grin on his face. Serena raised it high above his head, preparing to slam it down onto Larcade –

            “Larcade! Serena! What are you doing? You’ll wreck the tree!”

            The mammoth snowball fell to the ground and shattered with a sad _crunch._ Jacob hurried towards them, trying to push them away from each other.

            “Look what you’ve done! There’s snow all over the branches. And – did you even start decorating? There’s barely anything there.”

            “That’s because Serena kept rearranging the decorations we’d already placed instead of actually _decorating.”_ Larcade stood up, dusting himself off.

            “I wouldn’t have had to if you had any sense of beauty.”

            “Shut up. Both of you.” Jacob sighed. “Just… decorate the tree. Serena, stop rearranging everything. Larcade, don’t retaliate.” He turned and walked away. “In about twenty minutes, we’ll take a break for hot chocolate. Hopefully we’ll have some more done by then…”

 

Night had fallen in a starry blanket over the town. The tree stood, shining like a beacon, in the center of the square, making the stars above pale in comparison.

            “I think we did a good job.”

            Larcade nodded in agreement. “You were right about the colour coordination. It does look… just a bit better this way.”

            “Just a bit?”

            “I still think it would look good no matter how we decorated it.”

            Serena turned back toward the tree, sipping his hot chocolate. “You might be right.” He hesitated. “My apologies for nagging you the whole afternoon, by the way. I guess it turned out fine.”

            “Of course.” Larcade laughed. “I might come back and do this again next year.”

            “Me, too.”

            “Don’t nag everyone like you did this year…”

            Serena lightly smacked his arm. “I won’t! Didn’t I just say that I was sorry?”

            “True, true.” Larcade took a long drink from his mug. “You know, even if it is freezing and I had to put up with your pestering for most of the day… I think it would be worth it for the hot chocolate.”

            “Only the hot chocolate?”

            “Well… maybe not.” Glancing sidelong at Serena, Larcade smiled. “Always a good reason to get out of the house.”

            Serena nodded. “It’s been fun.”

            “It has.”

            They turned their gazes back to the tree – watching, satisfied, as it flickered in the dark.


	4. Day 4 - Wahl x Neinhart

_“Oh, but Robert! I love you!”_

            A shower of popcorn hit the screen. “No you don’t, you shallow bitch!”

            “That’s not how you write romance!” Neinhart cried. “They literally met… what? Two hours ago?”

            “I guess the writers didn’t have enough success in relationships to know how it works.” Wahl snickered.

            “Seems an unfortunate number of writers are like that nowadays…” Neinhart sat bolt upright, his jaw dropping as the credits began to roll across the screen. “What, that’s it? They just kiss and then the movie ends? What about all those loose plot threads?”

            “Booo!” Wahl hurled another handful of popcorn at the screen.

            Neinhart sighed and sat back. “Want to take a break before the next one? We could head to the convenience store and get some chips or something.”

            “Sure.” Wahl stood up, grabbing his wallet and jacket from the back of the couch. He glanced at the clock. “Okay, we’re gonna need a flashlight. And gloves. You didn’t bring any gloves, right? Don’t worry, I have spares.”

            “Thanks.” Neinhart reached into his pocket. “I think I keep a spare flashlight with me… yes, here it is.”

            “Nice! Let’s go!” Grinning, Wahl twisted the door handle and shoved against the wooden surface.

            The door refused to budge. His grin fading, Wahl tried again, Neinhart quickly joining him – yet their efforts proved fruitless; the door remained firmly shut.

            “Why won’t it open?”

            “I dunno!” Wahl ran to the window, trying to peer outside. “Oh… it’s snowing pretty heavily…”

            Neinhart stared at him in disbelief. “…We’re snowed in? Seriously?”

            “Looks like it.” Wahl turned back toward him. “Do you, uh… know anyone who could dig us out?”

            “…I know a few. But they’ll definitely be asleep at this time of night.” Neinhart sighed. “I think I’m going to be stuck here overnight.”

            For a long moment, they both fell silent.

            Wahl sighed and leaned back against the door. “Well… it’s not so bad. I mean, you used to stay here overnight all the time back in middle school, right?”

            “That was middle school.” Neinhart sank onto the couch. “And it was certainly… a lot more _planned_ than this.”

            “It’ll be kinda the same.” Wahl threw himself onto the couch next to Neinhart. “I’ve got ginger ale. And I might not have chips, but I got pizza rolls! And more popcorn. Oh, and if you’re worried about toothbrushes and stuff, I have a couple extra ones I’ve never used. And – uh, you’re comfortable with sleeping in your clothes, right?”

            Neinhart laughed. “You seem awfully enthusiastic about this all of a sudden.”

            “Yeah! It’s just like way back when we were kids.” He grinned. “To be honest, I kinda missed this.”

            “Feeling nostalgic today?” Neinhart grinned back at him, standing up. “Let’s get some ginger ale and pizza rolls. Then we’ll come back and watch another terrible movie. How does that sound?”

            “Awesome! I’ll get the pizza rolls.” Wahl leapt from the couch and dashed upstairs.

            Minutes later, they lay back on the couch before the TV, two steaming plates of pizza rolls resting on the makeshift box-tables at either end of the couch. Wahl clicked along a row of movies, leaning back into the pillows.

            “Okay, Neinhart, which one of these looks like the absolute worst?”

            “Hm… either that one with the vampires or the one with the generic action guy.”

            Wahl pulled a quarter from his pocket and flipped it on the arm of the sofa. “…Generic action guy it is!”

            Neinhart reached up to dim the lights as the opening sequence began flashing across the screen. He sat back, biting into a pizza roll –

            And then the power went out.

            Wahl groaned. “No! This is the _worst_ time for the power to go out! It’s gonna be freezing in here!”

            “…Looks like the weather was worse than we thought.” Neinhart blinked at the empty screen. “It’s alright. We’ll find some way to stay warm. Do you have any blankets?”

            “Yeah, I got loads.” Wahl stood and began to trudge up the stairs. “Might wanna eat those pizza rolls before they go cold now…”

            Neinhart followed close behind him, flashlight in hand. “We’re just getting one problem after another, huh?”

            Wahl slid open the door of his closet and dragged out an armful of blankets. Following his lead, Neinhart grabbed another heap, heading back downstairs.

            “So… we can’t watch movies, can’t play games or anything like that… and the only lights we have are a flashlight and a camping lantern.” Wahl sighed. “What’re we gonna do? Board games?”

            “Do you have any?”

            “…No.”

            “Guess that’s ruled out, then.” Neinhart sat back, munching thoughtfully on a pizza roll. “We could just tell ghost stories or something.”

            Wahl reached down to the side of the couch, pulling a lever to recline the seat. “Sounds good. Wanna go first? Or should I?”

            Neinhart blinked in the darkness. “You know, I didn’t think you’d actually agree to that, considering our situation.”

            “What? Expecting me to be scared?” Wahl cackled. “C’mon, we used to do this all the time. I’m never scared of ghost stories.”

            “That sounds like a challenge.” Neinhart smirked, pulling the camping lantern into his lap. “Alright, give me a while to think. I have some good ones…”

 

It took hours to exhaust Neinhart completely of his mental list of horror stories. Wahl had run out some minutes ago, leaving Neinhart to tell the final ghost story before they would finally go to sleep.

            Neinhart shivered, pulling the blankets more tightly around himself. “Don’t you have some sort of backup heater or something? It’s freezing in here.”

            “Sure, Neinhart. That’s why you’re shaking.” Wahl grinned through chattering teeth.

            “You’re shaking more than I am.”

            “That’s ‘cause you’re hogging all the blankets!”

            Groaning, Neinhart pressed against his side. “Is this better?”

            “…Sharing body heat?”

            “Do you mind that?”

            “No, no! It’s uh–”

            “It’s not awkward, right? I can move back to the other side of the couch.”

            “’Course it’s not awkward! We’ve been friends since middle school, right? It’s fine.” Wahl dragged one of Neinhart’s blankets over himself. “And I get to steal your extra blankets this way.”

            “Hey!”

            “You had too many extra already!” They both sat in the quiet darkness for several long moments before Wahl spoke up again. “Hey, d’you think this is like that one movie we watched last year? Krampus or something? Where the power goes out and then–”

            “Wahl?” Neinhart glared up at him. “Do you think that now is maybe not the best time to say that?”

            “What? You don’t believe in that stuff, right?”

            “Well, no. But we’ve just spent two hours telling ghost stories. During a power outage. In the middle of winter.” He sighed. “I’m just saying that there might be better times to bring up horror movies…”

            “True, true.”

            Another awkward moment of quiet.

            This time, Neinhart broke the silence. “I think we should go to sleep now. It’s… almost three in the morning.”

            “We’ve gone to sleep later than that before.”

            “True, but back then we were watching movies. Or playing video games. Or something.” Neinhart shrugged. “We can’t do that now. So we should get some rest.”

            “Right.” Wahl hesitated. “Uh, goodnight.”

            “Goodnight.”

 

“Neinhart!” The whisper came quietly at first, then more insistently. “ _Neinhart!”_

            Neinhart groggily opened his eyes, groaning loudly. “Ugh… what?”

            “Power’s back on.”

            “Thank god…” Neinhart squinted at the light seeping through the blinds. “…What time?”

            “About six in the morning.”

            “Too early.” Neinhart buried his face in Wahl’s shoulder and began to snore.

            “C’mon. We’re gonna have call someone to dig out the front door if you want to go home.”

            “We can do that later.”

            “What about breakfast? Want pancakes?”

            “Later.”

            Wahl sighed. “Boring...”

            “Just two more hours.” Neinhart peered up at him. “Only three hours of sleep. Can’t I get two more?”

            “Fine, fine.” Wahl slumped back onto the couch. “But I’m setting the alarm on my watch.”

            His only reply was a snore.

            Slowly, accompanied only by the ticking of the clock and Neinhart’s snoring, Wahl drifted back to sleep.


	5. Day 5 - Dimaria x Brandish

The town of Vistarion was home to countless coffee shops: they were at every street corner, every convenience store – you couldn’t walk a few meters without seeing one. But perhaps the most popular was Valkyrie Coffee, a tiny shop which lay conspicuously on the route most of the townspeople took to work or school each morning.

            Dimaria rarely took interest in the customers. Working as a barista was her job, nothing more; especially not some kind of social outlet. Sure, the occasional cute girl would come in for a coffee or something, but more often than not Dimaria didn’t even get an opportunity to speak to them.

Yet this girl came back nearly every day, at almost exactly the same time. Dimaria had never seen her around the town before: it was as if she’d just come out of nowhere at the beginning of the month to chug as much of their famous candy cane hot chocolate as humanly possible.

            How she could consume so much sugar on a daily basis without throwing up, Dimaria would never know. But she certainly wasn’t complaining: the girl was not only cute, she was great for business.

            For the second time that day, Dimaria scrawled the girl’s name – Brandish – across the side of the steaming cup. Brandish showed up almost immediately to collect her drink and a chocolate donut. Dimaria could only stare in wonder as she took a seat and proceeded to wolf down both the donut and the hot chocolate without breaking a sweat.

            “It’s rude to stare at the customers, you know.”

            Dimaria was snapped out of her daze by her co-worker, Neinhart. “Yeah. But don’t you wonder about her?”

            “The girl who always orders hot chocolate?” Neinhart raised his eyebrows. “You’re interested in her, aren’t you?”

            “Don’t make assumptions.” Dimaria leaned on the counter. “I just wonder how she consumes that much sugar. And _why_.”

            “I’d imagine it’s mostly stress.” Neinhart turned back to the coffee machine behind him. “Exams are coming up almost right after winter break, after all. Not to mention that school in general tends to be more stressful at this time of year.”

            “True…”

            “What did I say about staring, Dimaria?”

            “I’m not staring!”

            “You are.” With a smirk, Neinhart slammed a lid onto the cup of coffee and scribbled a customer’s name onto it. As soon as the customer had come to pick up their drink and headed back to their seat, he changed his voice back to a whisper and turned to Dimaria. “Look, if you’re interested, I can help you out.”

            “I told you, I’m not interested in her.” Dimaria turned to the blender beside her and began to toss in ingredients. “Even if I was interested, I wouldn’t need your help.”

            “Right. Sure.” He leaned on the counter. “Tell me that again when you can go five minutes without looking at her.”

            “Shut up.”

            “You should try starting a conversation with her when she comes in tomorrow afternoon.”

            “Don’t be ridiculous.”

            “We’ll see how you feel about it tomorrow.”

 

Afternoon sunlight fell in slanting shafts through the windows, glistening on the heaps of snow outside. Dimaria gazed out at the view, hands resting on the counter as Neinhart took the order of one of their few early-afternoon customers.

            She glanced at her watch: nearly five o’clock. Only minutes away from the exact time Brandish usually showed up. A pit of dread began building in her stomach. Was it dread? She couldn’t tell.

            Just as expected, young men and women with bags under their eyes and the tossed-together outfits indicative of exhausted college students began filing in only minutes later. The city’s college had let out about an hour ago, and it was around this time that the vast majority of them usually wanted coffee. Subconsciously, Dimaria found herself scanning the crowd for Brandish’s vivid green hair – only to stop herself. Why did she care?

            Neinhart nudged her in the arm and subtly jabbed his finger toward the back of the line, grinning. Following the direction of his finger, she noticed Brandish standing in line, looking somewhat disinterested.

            She smacked Neinhart’s arm away and went to take the first customer’s order. Chuckling, Neinhart made his way over to the other cash register. Dimaria prayed that he would end up taking Brandish’s order instead of her.

            Unfortunately, Brandish was at the front of the line in minutes, and Neinhart was busy with another customer. Dimaria gave her usual welcoming smile.

            “Hi! The usual?”

            “Yes, please.” Brandish glanced at the line behind her as Dimaria turned to the array of drink machines and ingredients.

            Dimaria glanced over at Neinhart to see him grinning and giving her a thumbs-up. Rolling her eyes, she turned back to the customer.

            “So… you seem to come here a lot.”

            “Yeah. It’s nice. Especially at this time of year.”

            Dimaria smiled. “You like our hot chocolate?”

            “It’s great.” Brandish paused. “And exams are coming up after winter break, so…”

            “Energy, huh?”

            “Yeah.” She turned her attention to the cup in Dimaria’s hand as it was slowly filled to the brim with hot chocolate. “Thanks.”

            “No problem.” Dimaria handed her the drink and turned to the next customer.

 

“Sooo, looks like it went well…”

            “I had a conversation with her. Are you happy now?”

            “Are _you?”_ Neinhart raised his eyebrows, leaning against the counter. “Seems like it was rather short.”

            Dimaria groaned. “Will you stop trying to set me up with her? Why do you think I’m interested?”

            “You’re almost always looking at her. And you _did_ outright say she was cute a few days ago.”

            She sighed and leaned against the counter. Silence fell for a long minute.

            Finally, Dimaria spoke again. “Okay, so she’s _kind of_ cute. But how are you supposed to flirt with someone when you only see them once a day, for about a minute, while you’re at work?”

            Neinhart shrugged. “Write your number on the cup or something next time. It’s cliché, but it could work. And if it doesn’t, well, there are plenty of fish in the sea.”

            “Are you sure? Don’t people usually call the manager or something when the barista hits on them?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

            “That’s the thing about just writing your number on the cup. She can choose to call, or she can… not. It’s not demanding a response.” Neinhart leaned back against the counter. “If she does, good. If she doesn’t, you can just take the hint and leave it be.”

            “…I’ll try it tomorrow. If she comes in.”

            “She will. She always does.”

 

“Welcome to Valkyrie Coffee! May I take your order?”

            From the opposite cash register, Neinhart glanced over at Dimaria. Behind the customer she was serving stood Brandish, the usual bored expression on her face. She handed him the drink, and Brandish stepped toward the counter.

            As expected, she ordered the usual: candy cane hot chocolate and a chocolate donut to match. The order didn’t take long to finish and pour into one of their cardboard cups.

            It was now or never. Without thinking, Dimaria scrawled her number onto the lid beneath Brandish’s name. Smiling to herself, she handed it to Brandish and moved on to the next customer’s order.

            Neinhart glanced at Brandish’s table to see her scrutinizing the lid of the cup, her expression unreadable. He gulped and turned back to the blender.

            Finally, the rush of college students and retail workers petered out. Dimaria headed over to the cash register where Neinhart stood.

            “Did it go well?”

            “I don’t know. I didn’t see her reaction.” Dimaria shrugged. “She must’ve left by now.”

            “She left some time ago.” Neinhart glanced around. “Your shift ends in a few minutes, right?”

            “Yeah?”

            “You should see if you have any missed calls.”

            “Of course I will. Once my shift ends.”

            The last few minutes of Dimaria’s shift were excruciating. She kept glancing at the back, where her phone lay behind a door marked “employees only”, wondering if she had a missed call – or if Brandish had chosen not to call her.

            Finally, she was free. She grabbed her phone from her purse and clicked it on, scrolling through her notifications from the hours since her last break. There were a few texts from Larcade; some Twitter updates; a handful of notifications from her various group chats.

            No missed calls. A pit of disappointment sunk in her stomach as she stuffed it into her purse and headed back out into the restaurant.

            Neinhart gazed at her questioningly. She shook her head. He almost visibly slumped against the counter in disappointment, watching her on the way out.

            The door slammed shut behind her as she took her place in the driver’s seat. It didn’t matter, she told herself. As Neinhart had said, there were plenty more fish in the sea. Still, she couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.

            Why? Brandish had never shown any indication of being interested in her, she realized. Why had she expected Brandish to call her in the first place, just from some number written on a cup? They had spoken outside of business a couple of times at best – and even that was just small talk.

            She pulled into the parking lot and stepped out, trudging through the deep snow to the front door. It didn’t always have to end well. Besides, she’d had an agreement with herself: if Brandish didn’t call back, she would give up and move on. That was what she had to do now. It was probably a mistake to flirt with the customers anyway.

            Her keys clicked in the lock. Shoving the door open, she stepped into the welcoming warmth of her apartment.

            Her phone buzzed in her purse. Startled, she reached in and drew it out, expecting to see another text from Larcade or one of the group chats lit up on the screen.

            It was a number she didn’t recognize.

            _“Hi. Wanted to wait until evening to text you instead of messaging you during work”_

            Dimaria’s face lit up with a grin. Placing her phone on the nearby coffee table, she slipped out of her coat and gloves, before grabbing the phone and running upstairs to the couch.

            Seemed like she hadn’t made a mistake after all.


	6. Day 6 - Serena x Irene

Irene had always been a competitive person. The holiday season was no exception: as far as she was concerned, the neighbourhood’s decorating competition was hers to win. And each year, her extravagant display of lights would take first place, much to the chagrin of her neighbours; a good portion of them didn’t even bother entering the competition anymore.

            But this year, it seemed, someone would provide an actual challenge.

            She could only stand, paralyzed, gaping at the display before her. From the sidewalk up to the front door of the house, a rainbow of lights twinkled in the snow – lining every tree, every corner, every window. And the decorator hadn’t just scattered them about randomly as some of her neighbours did: the lights were perfectly-coordinated, to the point where even the blinking strands of lightbulbs were perfectly-timed.

            “Do you like my lights?”

            Irene jumped at the sound of a voice next to her, spinning around to see a grinning man with ginger hair tied in pigtails atop his head. “You! You did this?”

            “Indeed I did!” He raised his arms above his head. “How do you like it?”

            “It’s… lovely.” She forced a grin that came out as more of a sneer. “Say, you’re new around here, aren’t you?”

            “Yes! I just moved in a couple of months ago.” He smiled and shoved his hands into his pockets, oblivious to Irene’s growing anger. “And as you can see, I have a penchant for decorating! Did you see the tree in the town square?” His eyes lit up when she nodded. “I helped with that! And of course, when I heard that our neighbourhood had an annual decorating competition, I simply had to enter!” He struck a pose.

            “I see.” Irene leaned against his fence, glancing again in the direction of the house. “You know, that competition… I’ve won it the past four years running. I’m planning on treating myself when I get my five-win streak.”

            “Ah! Then you must be Irene.” He extended his hand. “I’m Serena. And my winning streak will be starting this year.”

            “We’ll see about that.” Smiling warmly, she turned to head back to her own house.

            “Alright. See you later, Irene.”

            As soon as Irene heard the gate creak open behind her, she dropped the false smile, glaring straight ahead as she strode down her garden path. “Well. Seems I’m going to have to make an impromptu shopping trip…”

 

“Don’t you think you have enough decorations on that house of yours?”

            “It would have been enough, once.” Irene scanned the aisle of ribbons and baubles, looking for something worthy of her yard. “But, you see… someone new has moved into the neighbourhood. And he may prove an actual challenge.”

            Jacob raised his eyebrows. “How so?”

            “Did you not see the house next door to mine this afternoon?” Irene all but spat in disgust. “He’s turned his home into a damn _lightshow_ for the holidays. He even timed them perfectly! How can I compete with that?”

            “Maybe it _is_ time you give someone else a shot at winning, Irene.” He sighed. “It’s for fun, you know. It seems to me that you take it far too seriously.”

            “I have a _reputation_ to uphold!” She stood on her tiptoes and grabbed a string of tinsel from the top shelf. “I can’t just let some complete newbie win! He’s – he’s just been a complete nobody ever since he moved in – I can’t let him swoop in and take my crown now!”

            Jacob cleared his throat. “Well… doesn’t it seem like you’re spending a bit too much money on this?”

            “Aren’t you supposed to be helping me?”

            “Fine, fine. How about this?”

            Irene glanced down. “Is that one of those things that projects light onto the wall of your house?”

            “Yes.”

            “Hmm…” Her gaze shifted between the projector and the bundle of tinsel in her hands. “Yes… that could work…”

 

Irene stood back, gazing up at the display of sparkling red-and-silver tinsel. She grinned. The light projector had _not_ been a mistake: dots of white light danced off the tinsel, making her whole yard appear to be a shimmering wonderland. Not only the eaves of the house had been decorated, either – the trees scattered about her yard were garnished with tinsel and lights. The one in the very center even hosted a glittering star.

            “What do you think?”

            “It’s lovely.” Jacob sighed. “Now, it’s getting rather late. I shall be heading home–”

            “Nice lights, Irene.”

            She turned around, smirking up at Serena’s bedroom window. “Still so confident about that winning streak of yours, Serena?”

            He grinned back at her. “What, you thought this was all I had? I’m not even done decorating yet.”

            She blinked. “Oh, you’re not?”

            “Of course not! This is – this is pathetic!” He gestured around at his front yard, shining even brighter now that night had fallen. “I have _heaps_ of decorations in my basement. You’re going to love them.” Serena smiled down at her, leaning on his windowsill. “Oh, but I’m sure you can get second place. Your house looks lovely!”

            “It certainly does. But you know, I’m not done yet either.”

            “ _You’re not?_ ” Jacob’s voice cracked in horror.

            “No, no. It’s still days until Christmas. I have plenty more decorating to do!” She grinned and headed toward the front door. “Goodnight!”

            “Goodnight, Irene!” The window slammed shut.

            Jacob glanced hopelessly between the two houses for a moment, before sighing and turning to head home.

 

Irene stood, glaring, at the edge of Serena’s yard. Beside her was Jacob, shivering even in his coat and scarf.

            “Look at it. It’s blasphemy.” Irene snorted. “He has… he has those light-up reindeer things! And candy canes by the path up to his front door! How am I supposed to deal with this?”

            “You know, Irene, sometimes less is more. You can win without spending extravagant amounts of cash on more decorations.”

            “But it needs to catch the judges’ attention. That’s what will win me this competition. And I’m _not_ losing my winning streak now – especially not to some newcomer!” She turned and strode down the sidewalk, toward the plaza. “Come on! We need something innovative. Something eye-grabbing.”

            “I think it looks fine as it is…”

            “Fine isn’t good enough! Let’s go.”

            Sighing, Jacob trudged after her into the plaza.

 

An hour later, Irene strode through the gates and into her yard – Jacob following close behind, loaded down with shopping bags of various size.

            “Alright. We need to get down to business immediately.” She clapped her gloved hands. “We’ll show that Serena who’s boss.”

            “We can’t at least take a break first?”

            “No! Absolutely no laziness!” She spun around, glaring at him. “I’m going to win this competition when the judging happens tomorrow. And this house will be the brightest in the neighbourhood!”

            “I just feel this is a bit excessive…”

            “Excessive is my middle name, Jacob. Now let’s get to work.”

 

They spent two hours putting up decorations, tweaking positions, perfecting the display in Irene’s yard. At some point during that time, Irene’s nine-year-old daughter had come out of the house, likely taking pity on Jacob and deciding to help him out. Only once (after much pestering from Erza) had Irene agreed to take a break for hot chocolate and biscuits.

            Now, the trio stood at the edge of the yard, shivering in the freezing darkness.

            “Okay. Once I plug this in, the whole yard will light up.” Grinning, Irene glanced up to see Serena watching them from his bedroom window, silhouetted against the light. “We’ll see who wins now that I’ve added in even more lights!” Without further ado, she slammed the plug into its socket.

            The lights flickered on. From his high window, even Serena gaped, astounded at the sheer brilliance of Irene’s decorations. She cackled gleefully as Erza and Jacob cheered behind her, high-fiving in celebration of this inevitable victory.

            And then the neighbourhood was plunged into darkness.

            For several long moments, everything was still and silent apart from a slight breeze disturbing the snow.

            Erza piped up. “Mom? What happened?”

            “The power went out, it seems.” Jacob glanced around. “Oh, dear. Seems like you overdid it after all, Irene.”

            “I… I…” Irene knelt in the snow, stammering in disbelief. Erza patted her on the shoulder.

            “Irene!” Serena wailed, dashing down his front path with his winter coat and scarf thrown on sloppily. “What have you done? Now _nobody_ has lights!”

            “I mean, it will be back on by tomorrow, right? Let’s not panic,” she said weakly.

            “Not if you have this many lights! You need to take some of them down.” Serena folded his arms.

            “But… you would win…”

            He gestured vaguely around the yard. “Oh, come on! You made everyone’s power go out! If you don’t take down some of this, there will be no competition at all!”

            “How do you know that _I_ was the one who caused it?” She stood up, glaring at him. “I’d say it was a joint effort! Look at your own yard! You had nearly as many lights as I did!”

            “Fine! We’ll both take down some lights.” He turned and headed back into his yard. “Just – we need the power back! I can’t see a thing, and it’s freezing!”

            Jacob watched Serena’s retreating back. “It was a good effort.”

            “Yeah…” She knelt to unplug her lights, before heading back out to take down their afternoon’s work. “It was a good try.”

 

“Your lights were pretty good until they blew out the whole neighbourhood’s power, you know,” Serena remarked. “I think you could have won.”

            Irene tilted her head, her gaze flickering between both of their yards. “It could go either way at this point, honestly. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow…”

            “Indeed.” Serena glanced at his watch. “Hey, remember how you said you’d treat yourself if you won for the fifth time in the row? How about we go get something to eat right now?”

            She raised an eyebrow. “But nobody’s won yet.”

            Serena shrugged. “Who cares? Both of our yards look great. I think that’s enough of a cause for celebration.” He paused. “Bring Jacob and your daughter, too.”

            “…Well, I guess you’re right.” She smiled and turned back toward her house, waving her arm to beckon Jacob and Erza over. “And I’m not one to turn down free food.”

            His eyebrows shot up. “Oh? Who said I was paying?”

            She smiled up at him. “How about this? You can pay, and if you win the competition tomorrow, I’ll pay you back. For all four of us.”

            He hesitated, then grinned back at her. “Fine. It’s a deal. And may the best decorator win.”


	7. Day 7 - Invel x Larcade

Christmas music blared throughout the community center, couples and groups of friends spinning dizzyingly around the well-shined wooden floors. In the dim golden light of the hall, the music and chatter seemed all the more deafening.

            Larcade sunk into one of the empty chairs lining the sides of the hall, taking another sip of punch. He hadn’t arrived alone, of course, but his best friend had ditched him in the middle of the dance floor for some green-haired girl she met at work, and he hadn’t seen her since. Vaguely, he wondered why she had even invited him if she only wanted to meet up with her new girlfriend.

            Aside from Dimaria, there were few familiar faces in the crowd – all of whom were preoccupied with their own friends. Larcade glanced around to see a scattered bunch of his college classmates and teachers; he knew almost none of them well, and none of them so much as glanced at him. The sinking feeling of loneliness began to set in.

            But at least it was better than being at home.

            Comforted by that thought, he grabbed a handful of pretzels and shoved them into his mouth. And there was another benefit: the food. Every inch of the buffet table was covered with platters, bowls, and cups – and in the very center of the various sweets, snacks, and drinks sat an enormous Christmas cake frosted with white.

            He stood and strolled down the length of the buffet table, occasionally grabbing a pinch of something and dumping it onto his paper plate. All the while, he remained far from the dance floor, though a few dancers bumped into him before running off with quick apologies.

            By the time he reached the cake, his plate was piled high with food. Sighing, he turned to head back to his seat and dig in – only to bump into yet another person.

            “Sorry!” Larcade scrambled to catch the few bits of food that had fallen from his plate. He turned to look at the stranger – and blinked in surprise. “Invel?”

            “Larcade?” Invel looked equally taken aback, clutching his plate of pretzels with one hand. “I didn’t think I’d run into you here of all places… How are you doing, though?”

            “I’m doing well,” he lied, smiling down at Invel. “I’ve been getting out more now that it’s winter break. How are you?”

            “Same here.” Invel turned back toward the buffet table. “Though, to be honest… I’m only here because Brandish more or less forced me. And she ran off with that woman from the coffee shop earlier…”

            Larcade chuckled. “So Brandish is her name? That’s an unusual one.”

            “Can we really say that, though?”

            “True, true…”

            Larcade turned and headed back to his seat, Invel following close behind and sitting down on the chair next to him. They stayed silent for a while, watching as people moved about the dance floor, faces invisible among the flurry of dancers.

            Only minutes later, he glanced down at his plate to find it empty of anything but crumbs. Sighing, Larcade stood and shook the crumbs into the trash can beside him.

            Invel, who had finished his food some time ago and dumped the empty plate in the trash, peered up at him from his phone. Larcade sat back down and smiled.

            “Well, since we’re here… would you like to dance?”

            “Sure.” Invel stood, glancing over his shoulder to see Larcade following suit. Returning his smile, Invel followed him onto the dance floor.

            They stayed close together, toward the edge of the dance floor, not wanting to venture out into the crowd of strangers.

            “How has your winter break been so far? How’s your family?”

            “Everyone’s just relieved that it’s finally the holidays.” Invel snorted. “I think my siblings needed the break. How is yours, though? And how’s your – no. How is your break going?”

            “It’s going well.” Larcade paused. “August is doing well, too. And mother is a lot more cheerful lately.”

            “That’s good.” Invel peered up at him, his grip tightening on Larcade’s hands. “I’m… sorry if you don’t want to discuss that right now. I didn’t mean to bring it up. How about we discuss something else?”

            The room suddenly felt too hot, too crowded. Larcade gulped. “…Do you want to go on a walk? Just through the town – to look at the lights and everything?”

            “Sounds good.” Invel let go of Larcade and headed toward the door. “I’ve seen some amazing displays this year, you know. Irene and Serena really went all out…”

            Larcade raised his eyebrows. “Serena lives in this neighbourhood now? When did that happen?”

            “A few months ago. I think he mentioned it in passing during class. And, you know,” Invel said, gesturing toward the exorbitant display of blinking lights adorning the yard of a nearby house, “who else would decorate like _that?”_

“It’s… hideous.”

            “Good to see I’m not the only one who thinks so.” Invel shook his head.

            They strolled through the falling snow, leaving behind the suburban fences and houses of Queens Avenue and heading out into the town’s more sparsely-populated outskirts. Caught up in their conversation, the two didn’t even realize how far they had walked until Invel became aware that they were walking beneath an underpass he had never seen before.

            “Larcade? I think we might have walked a bit far.” Invel turned to see nothing but their footprints in the snow behind them; the nearest house was but a silhouette lost in the mist.

            Larcade glanced over his shoulder, shoving his hands into his pockets. “…Ah. Maybe.”

            “Should we head back? Wasn’t Dimaria going to drive you home?”

            “I think she was planning on heading home with Brandish…” He shrugged, glancing around. “It doesn’t matter. My house isn’t _that_ far from the community center.”

            “I’ll drive you if you want. If Brandish is going with Dimaria, I suppose I won’t need to drive her home.” A long pause. “Larcade? It seems like something’s on your mind.”

            “It’s…” Larcade paused and sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t want to just dump this on you out of nowhere, especially not in the middle of...”

            “Don’t worry about that. I want to help you in any way I can.” Invel leaned back against the wall of the underpass. “What is it?”

            “I’ve been thinking that, well… Father is a lot less volatile since Uncle Natsu came back home. And… it’s the holidays.” He gulped. “I think everything might be settling down now. I think that Father can change for the better.”

            Invel remained silent for a long moment. “…I really hope that he can. But even if he does change, nobody is obligated to forgive him. Especially not you and the rest of your family.”

            “I _want_ to forgive him, Invel. I want to have a real father again.”

            “It will be your choice. I just…” Invel sighed. “I think you should be cautious, for now. Just until we know for certain that he really _can_ go back to the way he was before.”

            “I know.” Larcade took a deep breath. “It’s just that… this has been weighing on me for a while. The… the bisexual thing. And, you know, now that things are starting to go back to normal… I think now might be a good time to come out to my family.”

            Invel stood back up in alarm. “Larcade, are you sure? I remember your father saying things – back when I was in his class–”

            “But that was years ago, right? People can change their minds. I know he’s said awful things, but I don’t think that he holds those views anymore. And I think that I would feel more comfortable in general if I was out to everyone at home.”

            Only their shaky breaths filled the silent air. Finally, Invel spoke.

            “…It’s your choice. But I don’t know if this is the most… prudent decision.” He gulped. “There _is_ a chance that your father has changed. But he may also still hold those views. I don’t want you to put yourself at risk.”

            Larcade nodded. “I understand where you’re coming from. But I think that this might be a risk worth taking.” He smiled. “As I said, everything at home is calming down now. And this is what I want to do. I think it might just improve things further if there are no secrets between us as a family.”

            “I understand.” Invel smiled back at him. “I think you may be right about that. Do you want to head back to the community center?”

            “Yes. We should.” Larcade glanced at his phone, tapping in a quick message to Dimaria to let her know that Invel was driving him home. “Let’s go.”

 

The drive back to Larcade’s home was cheerful. Though Invel’s car was freezing by now (and the heater barely worked), there was a certain warmth in each others’ presence as they drove down the street, occasionally peering out at the blinking lights on either side.

            Gravel crackled beneath the wheels as they pulled into the driveway before the largest home in the neighbourhood. Larcade reached for the door handle – then hesitated.

            “Invel?”

            “Hm?”

            “I just wanted to thank you for listening back there.” He smiled at Invel over his shoulder. “I’m glad I was able to talk to someone about this.”

            “It was no problem.” Invel glanced up at the house. “…I hope everything goes well for you. And happy holidays.”

            “Happy holidays.”

            The car door slammed shut behind Larcade. He stood by the front door of his home, watching as the deep blue car pulled out of the driveway and disappeared down the street.

            Taking a deep breath, Larcade pushed open the front door and stepped inside.


	8. Day 8 - Irene x Dimaria

Dimaria pulled the colourful paper around yet another tiny gift, taping it shut and tossing it onto the pile of already-wrapped presents. She had forgotten what they were even for by this point – it was a charity giving gifts to children in homeless shelters or something. Nowadays, she mostly did this volunteer work because it looked good on her resume.

            Larcade hadn’t come with her this time, but that red-haired woman from their neighbourhood had apparently decided to show up. Dimaria had never particularly liked her: as one of the unfortunate residents of her apartment block with a bedroom window facing the other side of the street, she had to suffer the full consequences of the colourful blinking in Irene’s yard. At this time of year, Dimaria tended to sleep with the pillow over her head. More often than not she avoided her over-decorating neighbour like the plague.

            Why Irene of all people was here, Dimaria didn’t know. Perhaps it was for the same reason as her. Whatever the case, they were stuck working together for the next two hours. The hour they had already worked had been awkward and silent; it seemed her feelings about Irene were mutual.

            “Watch where you’re putting that tape.”

            She was snapped out of her musings by the sound of Irene’s voice. Staring down, she found that she had been about to tape Irene’s fingers to the package. She rolled her eyes and placed the tape down more carefully.

            Irene tossed the wrapped gift over her shoulder, letting it bounce off of the overflowing basket and land on the floor.

            Dimaria snickered. “Good thing that wasn’t delicate.”

            “You’ve dropped your fair share of these too, you know.” Irene turned toward the next gift and placed it in the center of the wrapping paper.

            “Right, right.” Dimaria began pulling the paper around the miniature stuffed animal, frowning when it wouldn’t fit properly. After a long moment of struggling, she gave up on trying to make it look presentable and simply folded the paper sloppily over it.

            “Don’t do that!” Irene pushed her hands away. “It has to look good.”

            “It’s a stuffed animal! It’s hard to wrap, okay?” Dimaria sat back and folded her arms.

            “It’s not _that_ difficult.”

            Dimaria glared at her. “Fine. You can do it, then, if you’re so good at this.”

            “Fine. Watch me.” Pulling the present over to her side of the table, Irene attempted to wrap the present. Every time, it turned out just as horribly as Dimaria’s attempts.

            “Not that difficult, huh?” She smirked.

            Irene frowned in concentration. “Shut up. I can do this.”

            Dimaria leaned forward, watching with mild amusement. “Have you never wrapped stuffed animals before? Don’t you have a kid?”

            “When I wrap them at home, I can just put them in boxes first.” She groaned as her fifth attempt fell short. “God, why can’t we just put _these_ in boxes? It would make things so much easier.”

            “I guess the charity can’t afford to spend extra money on boxes just to make things a little easier for some people.” Dimaria smiled at her and snatched the present away, trying again to wrap the toy. Irene watched her disinterestedly.

            For a long while, their tiny corner was silent apart from the rustling of paper.

            Finally, Dimaria decided to bring up the topic of the lights. “So, that display you have in front of your house…”

            “Rather grand, isn’t it?” Irene sat up straight, smirking. “I’ll have you know that it tied with another resident’s decorations for first place in the neighbourhood decorating competition. _And_ I have a five-year winning streak!”

            “Can you really consider it a win if you tied with someone else?”

            “Of course! We _both_ came in first place. Not second.”

            “Uh-huh.” She nodded absently. “You know, those lights are _very_ bright. They flash a lot, too. Don’t you think that perhaps it might disturb the people across the street from you?”

            Irene raised her eybrows. “Nobody’s complained about it. If they were bothered, I’m _sure_ they would have the common decency to talk to me about it instead of whining to others behind my back.”

            Dimaria abruptly stopped fiddling with the wrapping paper, glaring up at Irene. The latter’s smirk confirmed her suspicions. “So you know why I’m asking, then.” She leaned forward even further. “Listen, I don’t appreciate having to sleep with my pillow over my head. And my neighbours don’t, either. So how about you tone it down a little?”

            “Most people can just block it out.” Irene took back the gift and began shifting it around in front of her, testing different angles. “Besides, I spent a lot of money on those. What’s the point in just putting them away? Decorations are meant to be seen.”

            “Well, some people don’t _want_ to see them.” Dimaria smiled, struggling to keep her cool. “Especially when it’s disturbing their sleep schedule. Besides, most people don’t have all their decorations up at once – if we have extra decorations, we put them away and use them next year.”

            “Well, I chose not to. I think it should be my decision what I do with the decorations that I bought with _my_ money. Not the choice of some oversensitive neighbour.”

            That was what finally pushed Dimaria to the point of snapping. She lunged across the table, swinging her fist; Irene dodged backwards, resulting in Dimaria only knocking the stuffed animal onto the floor, the wrapping paper drifting down after it.

            “My, my. Getting this bent out of shape over some lights? How immature of you.”

            “Look, my sleep is important to me, okay?” Dimaria slumped back into her chair. “I’ll help you take them down if you want. Just… take them down. Or at least _some_ of them.”

            “What are you two doing?”

            In the sudden quiet, the two became gradually aware that the entire room was staring at them. Irene gulped.

            “I can explain…”

 

Minutes later, they stood outside, shivering in their coats and scarves as they waited for the bus back to their neighbourhood.

            Irene glanced at Dimaria. “…So… about the lights. I’ll take down the flashing ones if they bother you and all your neighbours _that_ much. But only the flashing ones.” She sighed. “And I still don’t think it was worth starting a fight over.”

            “…Yeah. Sorry about that.” Dimaria sighed. “At least we got something done this evening.”

            “True. And nobody has to know that we got kicked out.”

            Silence fell once again. Much to her distaste, Dimaria began to feel something quite like guilt. _She_ was the one who’d gotten them both kicked out, after all – and over a petty squabble about lights.

            She hesitated for a brief moment. “Want me to make it up for you with coffee? I get a staff discount at that place a few blocks from here.”

             “Coffee sounds good right about now.”

            Dimaria breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay. Let’s go.”

            Giving her the tiniest hint of a smile, Irene turned and headed in the direction of Valkyrie Coffee. Briefly smiling back at her and shoving her hands into her pockets, Dimaria walked alongside her.

            “By the way, do you still want my help taking down those lights?”

            “Of course. I don’t think Jacob would be willing to go through all that again.” Irene chuckled. “How about we talk more when we get our coffee?”

            “Sounds good.”

            Silently, they headed into the coffee shop.


	9. Day 9 - Brandish x Lucy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of a chapter yesterday! I was too busy to write, but I finally managed to get this one done today

Lucy blinked against the sunlight glinting off of the snow. Her breath formed clouds in the freezing air, snowflakes settling in her hair and on her coat. Even from here, the towering ski hill looked imposing; her only comfort was the familiar sight of her best friend all but skipping next to her.

            “This is going to be fun.”

            “Yeah.” Lucy smiled to herself. Brandish was right; she shouldn’t be so nervous. After all, they were here for fun.

            This ski resort hadn’t exactly been cheap, either – everyone in their tiny friend group had had to chip in to gather up just enough money for all of them to come. For a while, they’d been afraid they might not even be able to go with how little they had a few weeks ago. But they had made it, and they might as well make the most of the ski slopes while they were here.

            The problem was that Lucy had little skiing experience. Of course she would be nervous when the last time she had been skiing was in January – almost a full year ago now – and it hadn’t exactly been pleasant. She shuddered at the memory of struggling in a roaring blizzard for a solid twenty minutes, in the middle of a ski slope, near-immobile thanks to a sprained ankle.

            But this time would be better: Brandish was here with her now, after all. She would be there if anything like that happened again.

            Brandish slipped her feet into her skis, turning to make sure Lucy was following close behind her as she shuffled toward the ski lift. Lucy followed her lead, clutching the ski poles tightly.

            Lucy gulped, watching as Brandish grabbed one of the handles on the ski lift and began to ascend. She grabbed the next handle down, stumbling a little before regaining her balance as she was dragged uphill, squinting against the barrage of snowflakes.

            It seemed like forever until they reached the top. Letting go of the ski lift, Lucy followed Brandish to the middle of the slope, her heart pounding.

            “Want to go down together?”

            Brandish nodded. “In three… two… one…”

                        Next thing she knew, Lucy was speeding downhill and straight into the onslaught of snow. Squeezing her eyes shut, she pulled the fronts of her skis together as she remembered the instructor teaching her months ago, clutching the two ski poles tightly.

            Brandish skidded to a halt at the bottom of the slope, turning to see Lucy sliding in after her moments later with surprising grace for a near-beginner.

            “That was great.”

            Lucy nodded, looking somewhat breathless. “Y-yeah. Can we go again?”

            “Of course!”

            Skidding back towards the ski lift and latching on, they headed back up the hill and down again. Lucy’s nervousness didn’t quite go away: she still shook from more than the cold, her heart racing each time they went down. The beginners’ hill was nothing but a vast hill of white, with no obstacles or turns to be found – yet her nerves still kicked in.

            Brandish kept shooting glances at her as they rode up the hill and slid back down again, and again, and again. Finally, she spoke up. “Lucy? Is something wrong?”

            Lucy shook her head. “No! Just a little nervous. I can keep going.”

            For a moment, Brandish looked skeptical, but she eventually decided to simply take Lucy’s word for it. Smiling, she turned to head back up the hill.

            Lucy simply stood and watched her for a long moment. She knew she wasn’t entirely telling the truth; she would rather have headed back to the lodge for a hot drink and a book, but Brandish was having so much fun. It would be a shame to leave her skiing by herself, especially when they’d gone to so much effort to have at least one skiing trip by themselves.

            Shaking her head to clear it, she hurried after Brandish and back up the hill.

 

It was a long while before they decided to move on to higher slopes. They were steeper, with the path winding around trees and corners in sharp twists and turns. Somehow, even though they weren’t that much higher than the beginners’ hill, they seemed a lot colder.

            Lucy shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself for warmth. How long had they been skiing out here? The cold had begun to seep through her coat and gloves, even though she had been moving almost nonstop the whole time.

            Brandish slid to a halt and spun around to face Lucy. “Do you want to head back to the lodge, or should we do one more?”

            Lucy smiled back at her. “I don’t mind either way. What would you like to do?”

            “Hmm…” Brandish glanced between Lucy and the ski hill. “Are you sure there’s nothing on your mind? You seem a little…”

            “No, no, I’m fine.” Lucy followed Brandish’s gaze to the peak of the highest slope, looming over the top of the trees. “Do you want to go to that one?”

            “Kind of.”

            “Then let’s go.”

            “But are you sure you want to?”

            “Yeah!” Lucy headed toward the ski lift. “I think we’re both getting better at this. Why not put it to the test? Besides, one more slope won’t hurt.”

            Brandish took a seat after her, glancing at Lucy’s gloved hand to see it gripping the edge of the bench like her life depended on it. She turned to gaze up at the crest of the hill as the ski lift began to carry them upwards. “Let’s just do this one once. It’s a pretty long one.”

            “Sure. Then we should head back to the lodge.”

            “Yeah.”

            They reached the peak, both shivering by now. The snow whipped around them in what had become almost a blizzard, heavy snowflakes battering them as they headed toward the center of the slope. Nobody else seemed to be on this slope at the moment.

            “Ready?” Brandish leaned forward, taking her position. “Three… two… one…”

            She gritted her teeth, clutching her ski poles as they began the rapid descent into the roaring snowstorm. Beside her, Lucy struggled to keep her balance as they slid down, her eyes squeezed shut. Brandish gulped.

            Lucy cracked open one eye, jerking to the side as she found herself about to crash into a tree. She swayed and stumbled for a moment before she managed to regain her balance. Brandish was further down the hill now, a grey figure in the whirling snow, peering over her shoulder in concern as she watched Lucy stumble downhill; Lucy sent her a reassuring smile, right before she fell and rolled down.

            “Lucy!” Skidding to a complete stop, Brandish turned and struggled back up the slope. Squinting into the blizzard, she could barely make out the shape of Lucy struggling to sit up. She made her way over to the shape and helped her up. “Are you okay?”

            She groaned. “I think… I think I hurt my ankle again.”

            Brandish frowned. “We need to get back to the lodge. Let’s go.”

 

Lucy sighed and leaned back, resting her bandaged ankle on the table. “Well, at least we had fun.”

            Brandish nodded. “Did you?”

            “…Yeah.”

            She stayed quiet for a while, as if thinking of what to say. “It’s just… you seemed really nervous the whole time. I didn’t want to drag you into anything you didn’t want to do, but you kept saying you were fine, so I took your word for it…”

            “…You were really excited, though.” Lucy turned her gaze to the fireplace. “I didn’t want to ruin it for you. Besides, we planned this for so long…”

            “But it’s important that we both enjoy it.” Brandish leaned back in her chair, sipping from a mug of hot chocolate. “I think we should be honest with each other. And plan things that we know we’ll both like.”

            “You’re right.” Lucy smiled at her from the opposite side of the coffee table. “I’ll… try that from now on.” She glanced down at her leg and laughed weakly. “Either way, I don’t think I’ll be going skiing again this vacation.”

            “We can find other things to do.”

            “Don’t let me hold you back from skiing if you want to.”

            “Of course I’ll go skiing again. But there’s tons of other things to do around here that we can both do.” She looked thoughtful.

            “We could go sightseeing,” Lucy suggested.

            “Yes!” Brandish put down her empty mug. “How about that little town near here?”

            “That sounds good. We can do some shopping while we’re there, too, if you want to.”

            Brandish nodded. “I saw a few good shops on the way up here.” She thought for a moment. “Do you want to go tomorrow afternoon? Or, if your ankle doesn’t feel much better by then, we could go in a few days.”

            “Sounds like a plan!” Lucy picked up her own mug and took a sip of hot chocolate.

             It felt as though a weight had been lifted from both of their shoulders. Relaxing, they turned to the fireplace to watch the logs crackle, both of them exhausted but content.


	10. Day 10 - Ajeel x Larcade

His hands trembled as he stared down at the glowing screen, clutching the phone in both hands. Who could he call? Dimaria? But how would she react? Would she try to take it up with his father and get him into even deeper trouble than he was already in?

            Larcade sighed, hunching over. He sat perched on his suitcase at the edge of the sidewalk, attracting quite a few stares from onlookers – though he cared little; he had far bigger problems right now. A few of them had handed him money or food, which he had accepted gratefully and stored in his suitcase until he could get somewhere cleaner and preferably warmer.

            He could always call Invel. Invel would be smart enough not to pick a fight with Professor Dragneel that would inevitably be taken out on Larcade – but what if he called the police? Even if his father went to jail, he wouldn’t be in there forever, and he would likely come out even worse than before; it wouldn’t affect Larcade himself, but surely his brother August and their mother would suffer for it.

            He sighed and slipped the phone back into his coat pocket. He would have to think about it more later; at the moment, his first priority should be to find some kind of shelter, at least until college started again in January.

            Cold shot through him at the thought. He would have shelter in January in the form of the dormitories, but with his father being the college’s history professor, he would have bigger problems – what if his father outed him to the rest of the faculty? Or the students? How would they react?

            Larcade shook his head. No, it was better to worry about the present right now.

            Standing up and grabbing his suitcase, he headed off to find a shelter.

 

The bell chimed overhead as Ajeel stepped out of the tiny store and into the cold. Grinning to himself, he shoved the gift bag into his pocket and turned to head home.

            He’d almost left it too late to finish up his Christmas shopping, but thankfully Anna’s Bookstore hadn’t been sold out of anything halfway decent like most of the others in town – probably a perk of being a little-known business. Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he strode down the block towards his home.

            It was then that a familiar face caught his eye.

            Ajeel and Larcade had never been all that close – they were the type of friends who would work on projects together in class, but never met up outside of their school. Yet the sight of Larcade trudging down the street, dragging a suitcase behind him and keeping his eyes fixed on the pavement, concerned him.

            “Larcade? Larcade!” He turned and hurried after him. The man turned around, eyes wide with surprise.

            “Ajeel? What’s the matter?”

            “Uh…” Ajeel glanced down at the suitcase. “…Everything okay, man? You look kinda… upset.”

            Larcade hesitated for a long while before he spoke. “It’s nothing important. I’m just – you know.”

            “Out on the streets with one suitcase?” Ajeel folded his arms. “Larcade, what happened?”

            “…I got kicked out. Just a couple of hours ago,” Larcade blurted out. “I – I thought it would be a good time to come out to my family, since everything’s been calming down since Uncle Natsu came back. But Father, he – Mother tried to convince him to let me stay. But he shoved her aside and yelled at both of us. Then he told me to pack my bags and get out.” He laughed weakly. “I think it’s – it’s better for me than it would have been if I’d had to stay. I’m more concerned about Mother than I am about myself. And my brother. He wasn’t home at the time it happened, but if he tried to talk to Father about it when he came home…”

            Ajeel stood there, gaping at him. He’d known that Larcade’s uncle had gone to jail for arson and property destruction, and that his father had had some kind of breakdown over it – hell, the whole school had seen the way Professor Dragneel looked after the story about his brother showed up in the news. But he hadn’t known that Zeref had been taking it out on his wife and sons: how long had this been going on?

            “I’m going to talk to your dad.”

            “What? Ajeel, no!” Larcade turned and caught up to him in a few quick strides as Ajeel began heading back down the street.

            “Someone’s gotta confront him. I don’t know how long this stuff’s been going on, but it needs to stop.” Ajeel turned to stare down the street. “The house is this way, right?”

            “Ajeel! My brother is still there.” Larcade grabbed his shoulder to stop him. “If we try to talk to Father about this, he might take it out on him and Mother. It’s best if we just let it go. I can find a shelter or something to stay in until school starts.”

            “And what’s gonna happen when school starts? Your dad is a professor. Someone’s gonna have to confront him about this eventually, whether it’s now or later.”

            “I don’t think that confronting him personally is a wise choice.” Larcade frowned. “If anything, we should just focus on getting Mother and August out of there. But I don’t think now is the time for that.”

            Ajeel blinked. “Why not? Aren’t they in more danger now than they were before? I doubt your dad is happy about… y’know.”

            Larcade looked almost pained. “I know. I shouldn’t have come out when I did. But I’m not sure… _how_ to get the others out of the house. If we go to the police, they might arrest him. But even if he does go to jail, he won’t be in jail forever, and he’ll come out even worse when he does get out. I don’t want to take any risks with this.”

            “I guess.” Ajeel fell silent.

            Sighing, Larcade set his suitcase down and took a seat on it as he had before. Ajeel sat cross-legged on the pavement beside him, elbows on his knees and his chin resting in his hands.

            “…Do you wanna come to my place for the holidays?”

            Larcade turned toward him. “What?”

            “I know we haven’t talked much before, but you gotta find somewhere to stay. We have a guest room. And tons of food. Gramps always buys extra over the holidays because he overestimates how much we all eat…”

            “But are you sure? Aren’t you a little busy at this time of year?”

            Ajeel waved his hand dismissively. “We got all our decorating and stuff done weeks ago. We’re not busy at all. And there’s tons of room in our house anyway.”

            Larcade stared down at his suitcase. It was a tempting offer, but what about Ajeel’s family? How would they feel about having another mouth to feed, especially a near-stranger?

            Ajeel seemed to read his mind. “I don’t think my family will mind having you around, even if they don’t really know you that well. As I said, we’ve got tons of space, and plenty of spare food. And it’s a hell of a lot better than staying in some kind of homeless shelter…”

            “You’re right.” Larcade stood, picking up his suitcase and smiling down at him. “Thank you.”

            Grinning, Ajeel hopped to his feet. “Let’s go! It’s a couple blocks down this way. I’ll call Gramps and let him know.”

 

The guest room was surprisingly large – though it may have just looked that way due to its few furnishings. There was a bed, a nightstand with a lamp and alarm clock, a chest of drawers, and not much else.

            Larcade all but threw himself onto the bed. It was a massive relief after spending the past few hours either walking or sitting down on the hard lid of his suitcase.

            Ajeel snorted with laughter. “Nice, huh?”

            “Mhm.” Larcade rolled over onto his back. “I’m glad your family is letting me stay.”

            “’Course they are. They’re not assholes.” He climbed on top of the chest of drawers and sat down. “D’you have everything you need? We can buy you stuff if you need it.”

            “No, but thank you. I think I’ve got everything.”

            “Nice.” Ajeel hopped down from the drawers. “They’re cooking dinner right now. Should be ready in a couple of minutes. I’ll let you know when it’s done, okay?”

            “Sounds good.”

            The door clicked shut behind him. Moments later, he heard the sound of Ajeel heading upstairs. On the next floor up, he could hear Ajeel’s family moving around, chattering and laughing among themselves as they worked on the food.

            Sighing, he leaned back against the pillow. The family had been much kinder to him than his own had ever been; Larcade smiled to himself, comforted by the knowledge that he now had a safe place to stay until college started up again.

            As for college, he would deal with that when the time came. He just hoped that August and his mother were safe – and that he could get them out of the house soon. While it might be unsafe on both sides for him to message them, he would certainly find a way to help.

            “Larcade! Dinner’s ready!”

            Larcade kicked the blanket off and headed upstairs, pulling up a chair to sit at the table with the others. Even among all the conversation, dinner didn’t seem to last long; but for the first time, Larcade felt as though he was really part of a family.


	11. Day 11 - Serena x Neinhart

Mall lighting always felt strange to Neinhart: it gave the building a surreal quality that he never quite got used to. He blinked at the surrounding crowd, feeling a little disoriented, the Christmas music echoing throughout the vast food court only worsening the sensation.

            Next to him sat the only other person who had agreed to this: God Serena, a fellow student from Neinhart’s history class. They had almost never spoken, but Neinhart knew Serena from his reputation more than anything – he was quite likely the loudest and most flamboyant student in their entire college. Most students either loved him or hated him. Neinhart didn’t feel strongly either way.

            He leaned against the table, drumming his fingers against the plastic surface. How long had they been sitting here? An hour? Two?

Glancing down at his watch, Neinhart found that it had been only about forty minutes. He groaned.

Neinhart and Serena had been among the only students from their college to volunteer to collect donations in the mall, and Neinhart was certainly beginning to wish that he hadn’t. Even if their school was a little low on funds, the whole thing seemed just a little pointless: after all, how much money would a couple of bored students sitting around in the mall be able to collect? And were the sweaters _really_ necessary?

And there was the worst part of this whole ordeal: the sweaters.

The handful of faculty members running this event had claimed that wearing “ugly Christmas sweaters” would help them collect more donations somehow. Apparently, getting into the holiday spirit would be far more profitable. With how little change they had received so far, Neinhart couldn’t help but wonder if that was the truth, or if the teachers had just been looking for an excuse to laugh at them.

“Come on, gentlemen! Where’s your spirit?” Smiling, the teacher behind them clapped her hands together. “Sitting there and glaring at everyone around you won’t help a bit! Come on, you’ve still got more than a full two hours to go! Remember to hand out candy canes to donators, too!”

“Right. Sorry.” Neinhart sat up straight, staring down at the box of candy canes. They still had nearly a full box left. Who wanted those cheap dollar-store candy canes, anyway?

“Now, I’m going to get myself a coffee.” She turned and began to walk away. “I’d better see some improvement by the time I get back!”

As soon as she was out of earshot, Serena slumped forward onto the table. “This is hell.”

“Right?” Neinhart sighed. “Why do we even have to wear these stupid sweaters?”

“They’re too itchy! I regret coming.”

“Me too.” He groaned. “This is going to sound terrible, but… now that she’s left, I kind of want to run away.”

“Oh, no you don’t!” Serena gripped his arm. “You’re not leaving me here with nobody to talk to!”

Neinhart shrugged. “Who said you couldn’t come with me? My ride home won’t be showing up for another two hours, but we can always just go hide in that café down the road or something. Maybe get some donuts.”

Serena looked thoughtful. His grip on Neinhart’s arm relaxed. “We could… but what about _her?_ ” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction the teacher had gone. “If she gets back and we’re not here, she’ll have a fit.”

“True… But we wouldn’t be here, right? She wouldn’t be able to yell at us or anything. And she can’t exactly leave this stand unattended, so she couldn’t go looking for us.”

“Hmm…” Serena leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “True. We could always run off and go shopping…”

“What are you two talking about?”

Both men jumped as the teacher spoke behind them.

“Nothing much,” Neinhart replied. “We were just discussing how we don’t seem to be getting many donations… and, you know, this whole thing seems like it isn’t really going anywhere… maybe we should go?”

The teacher chuckled. “Of course not! There’s still two hours left. That’s plenty of time to get donations!”

Serena groaned audibly and slammed his face back onto the table.

She glanced down at him. “But, I suppose if you two aren’t enjoying yourselves… I could get you a drink, or maybe a snack. Would you like hot chocolate?”

“Yes, please.” Neinhart smiled up at her.

“Alright! Once I finish my coffee, I’ll go get something for you.”

From his place on the table, Serena groaned again.

Neinhart patted him on the back. “Come on,” he whispered, “we should at least try to look enthusiastic. Maybe we’ll actually get a few more donations.” He turned and waved to the people milling about the food court. “Candy canes! Get your candy canes here!”

Serena glanced at him, before rising to stand on his chair and cupping his hands around his mouth. “Candy canes for every donation, no matter how small! Donate your spare change and get a candy cane!”

Something small clinked into the bucket. Neinhart smiled and handed a candy cane to the young man who had dropped it in.

Serena turned toward Neinhart. “How much was that? A dollar? A toonie?”

“I’m not sure.” Neinhart peered into the bucket – and his face immediately fell. “It’s… five cents.”

Serena’s face darkened. “Oh! Oh, I see how it is!” He leapt from his chair, running after the man who had given them the nickel. “Hey, you! Who do you think you are? Our candy canes are worth _far_ more than five cents apiece!”

The man turned and raised an eyebrow at him. “But you said that _any_ donation gets a candy cane, no matter how small.”

“I…” Serena faltered. The stranger smiled at him and turned to walk away.

Neinhart blinked at him as he returned to his seat. “Maybe not the best marketing strategy.” He glanced up at the teacher and lowered his voice to a whisper. “By the way, how long do you think it will be before she finishes her coffee?”

“Looks like she’s almost done.”

“…How can you tell?”

“It’s a talent.” Serena turned back to the crowd. “Candy canes! Hey – no, you put that back! They’re not free! You have to give a donation!”

Next thing Neinhart knew, Serena had run off again in pursuit of a young girl who had snatched a candy cane. He sighed and leaned forward against the table, trying to ignore the judgemental stares Serena was attracting.

Gazing upon the scene from her place at the top of the ramp, the teacher downed the rest of her coffee. She was clearly going to need the energy.

Serena returned to the table, looking somewhat ruffled – but victorious, holding the retrieved candy cane in front of him like a trophy. He sat back down and folded his arms. “God, nobody is willing to pay for these things.”

“I know, right?” Neinhart groaned.

“If you two would like a drink, I’ll go and buy you some hot chocolate,” the teacher announced. “I’ll be a couple of minutes.”

“Thank you.” Neinhart sat, listening for her footsteps to fade away into the general chatter of the mall. His eyes meeting Serena’s, he counted down from three. “…Now!”

They rose from their seats simultaneously, Serena flinging himself over the table and Neinhart rushing out from behind it. Not daring to look back, they hurried towards the exit, all but tearing off their sweaters and pulling their winter coats on over their undershirts instead. Serena whooped loudly in glee, flinging his arms up above his head as they heard the teacher shouting behind them.

Finally, they made it out of the doors – but they kept running: through the parking lot, down the street, into the tiny café at the top of the hill.

Laughing breathlessly, they both collapsed into a tiny booth in the corner. “We made it!” Neinhart cried triumphantly. “And we’re going to be in _so_ much trouble when college starts again…”

“Who cares? Focus on the now!” Serena grinned and leaned back in his seat. “We got away from that hellhole. And we got rid of those gross sweaters. I think this calls for a celebration.”

Neinhart nodded. “How about some donuts? And maybe a hot chocolate?”

“Sounds good.” Slipping off his coat, Serena sat back and tried to catch his breath as he watched Neinhart heading for the counter.

Minutes later, Neinhart returned with donuts and hot chocolate. He dumped them onto the table and collapsed back into his seat. “Enjoy.”

“Ooh. These are my favourites.” Serena took a donut and bit into it.

“Same here.” Smiling to himself, Neinhart followed suit. He glanced out of the window. “Nice view from here, don’t you think?”

“Yes! We can see the ice rink.” Serena turned towards the window. “And – hey, who’s that running up the street? Looks like they’re in a hurry.”

Neinhart squinted. He suddenly gasped, standing and grabbing his coat from the back of his chair. “No! I didn’t think she’d follow us all the way here!”

“It’s _her_?” Eyes wide with horror, Serena grabbed his coat and slipped it on, stuffing his donut back into the paper bag and picking it up. “Shit!”

The bell chimed as the teacher shoved the door open and stepped into the café, murder evident on her face. Her gaze settled on the two panicking young men in the corner.

Turning toward each other, Neinhart and Serena had but one thought: _“Run!”_


	12. Day 12 - Holiday Party

Jacob stood back, gaze sweeping over the entire display. “I think it’s nearly done.”

            Irene nodded approvingly. “I’m sure they’ll love it when they get here. Only a few more things to add. And… maybe we could put up some mistletoe–”

            “No,” Jacob and Bloodman replied simultaneously.

            “Fine, fine… Jacob, come help me with the dinner.” Grumbling, Irene shuffled back into the kitchen, Jacob following close behind her.

            Bloodman glanced around at the dining room, heaving a sigh. All the tables had been arranged into one long banquet table – though considering the few people they had invited, it would likely be mostly empty. The worst part was knowing that he, Jacob, and Irene would have to clean everything up at the end of the day.

            A car door slammed outside. He peered out of the window. “Someone has arrived, you two.”

            Immediately, Jacob shot back out of the kitchen in a state of panic. “We haven’t finished decorating! Hurry up! Bloodman, how high can you reach?” He began heaping decorations into Bloodman’s arms. “We need these up there ASAP! Hurry!”

            “Fine, fine!” Bloodman rushed to the opposite wall, stretching to put up the decorations.

            A knock sounded from the door of the pub. Jacob scurried toward it and pulled it open, oblivious to Irene looking on in amusement from the kitchen’s entrance.

            “Hello. I hope we’re not too early.” Larcade smiled down at him from the opposite side of the threshold. Ajeel and Invel stood on either side of him, trying to peer over Jacob’s shoulders into the dining room behind him.

            “Not at all,” Jacob replied, glancing over his shoulder while subtly blocking Ajeel and Invel’s view into the building. Bloodman had nearly finished with the decorations. “Food won’t be ready for some time, but feel free to come in and make yourselves comfortable.”

            Larcade stepped forward, and Jacob moved aside, shooting another meaningful glance at Bloodman. Bloodman turned back to the decorations and added the finishing touches, pinning up one last bauble before heading to the kitchen to help Irene.

            Jacob stopped him. “No need. Irene and I will finish things up. You can help the guests if you want to.”

            Bloodman nodded and headed back over to the other three – or two now; it seemed Ajeel had run off to examine the building they had rented for their Christmas Eve party. Invel had remained with Larcade, occasionally shooting concerned glances at him.

            “How are you two?”

            “I’m doing well,” Invel replied. He glanced at Larcade again.

            “Same here.”

            Bloodman cleared his throat. “Larcade, I did hear about what happened. I hope things have gotten better.”

            Larcade paused. “It’s… getting better. I’ve been staying at Ajeel’s for the past few days. He and his family have been kind to me.” He turned his gaze to the floor. “It’s August and Mother I’m worried about. It’s too risky to message them, but…”

             Irene, who had seemingly materialized out of nowhere, spoke up again. “I’m sure they’re fine for now.”

            “I hope so.” Larcade sighed. “I wish there was more I could do.”

            “You’ll be able to get in contact with them again soon. Trust me.” Shooting him a knowing grin over her shoulder, Irene headed back into the kitchen.

            Invel opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by another knock on the door. Dimaria pushed it open and strode in without waiting for a response, Brandish trailing behind her. “Hey. What’s up?”

            Brandish sniffed the air. “Smells good. Is it nearly done?”

            Bloodman glanced back at the kitchen. “I believe so. Irene and Jacob should be almost finished with the main course, at least.” He headed toward the kitchen and peered through the entrance. “Are you almost done? More guests have arrived.”

            Irene frowned. “Tell them not to get impatient. We’ll be done in ten minutes or so.”

            “…I see.” Bloodman turned and headed back toward the group.

            Ajeel had come back, and was now gesturing wildly as he told some kind of story to the others. Brandish narrowly avoided getting hit several times. Larcade looked vaguely lost.

            Bloodman stood a bit outside of the tightly-packed circle, glancing at the window to see yet another car pulling in – this one brightly-coloured and spotlessly clean. Only Serena would ride such an over-decorated vehicle – and he had likely brought Wahl and Neinhart along with him.

            Grinning from ear to ear, Bloodman rushed out to greet them.

 

“Jacob, pass me the salt.”

            Sweating both from the heat and the rapidly-shrinking window of time before their guests started to get impatient, Jacob grabbed the salt and handed it to her over his shoulder. The carrots and Brussel sprouts both looked like they would boil over at any second.

            Irene snatched the salt from him and poured a copious amount into whichever dish she was preparing – Jacob didn’t have the time to look. She had spent the whole morning ordering him around, making him get things for her, and still expecting him to get his own share of the work done with what little time she was giving him. Vaguely, he heard her make another demand behind him. He ignored her in favour of the carrots.

            “Jacob? Are you listening to me?” Irene narrowed her eyes, hands on her hips. “I need you to hand me the stock cubes. For the gravy.”

            “I don’t know where they are.”

            “They’re right over here.”

            “Then why don’t you simply get them yourself? I’m trying to keep about three different pans from boiling over here.”

            Grumbling, Irene headed over to get the stock cubes. “What’s gotten into you? You helped me out with my decorations last week. And you agreed to help me out with the Christmas dinner.”

            “That’s what I’m doing.” Jacob peered into the oven to see the turkey nearly finished. Another pan boiled over. He stood up to take the lid off. “I’m trying to keep the turkey and most of the vegetables going over here. Could you perhaps walk the two feet to get ingredients for yourself when you need them?”

            She raised an eyebrow at him. “I asked you to help. You should be listening to me.”

            “Except that you’re being completely ridiculous.” He turned to glare at her. “You’re not the one with three pots that are all intent on boiling over whenever you look away. You can spare three seconds to go and get ingredients. Thank you very much.”

            Irene fell silent. Jacob leaned down to get the turkey out of the oven.

            It was several minutes before she spoke up. “Sorry.” She paused for a long moment. “I’ve been… pushing you around a lot over the past few weeks, haven’t I?”

            Jacob sighed. “You have. But this season is stressful for everyone.”

            “Yes.” Irene nodded. “I’ll try to… do that less in the future. Just let me know if I do anything like that from now on, okay?”

            “I will. And thank you.” He smiled.

            Awkward silence fell.

            “You know, the… the parsnips are boiling over.”

            “Dammit!”

 

Serena glanced around at the group. “Well! Looks like everyone’s here. And the food will be served up at any minute, right?”

            Bloodman nodded. “It should be soon.”

            “Should we start setting the table or anything?”

            “Irene and Jacob did that already. But we can always go and sit down. Just don’t touch anything yet. Especially you, Wahl.” Bloodman headed into the dining room.

            “Huh? Why me?” Wahl folded his arms, stalking after him. “I didn’t do anything!”

            “You know, no offense, but there is a bit of a precedent for you destroying things.” Neinhart smiled apologetically. “Anyway, we should sit down.”

            Brandish followed them closely. “Agreed.”

            Irene peered out of the kitchen. “Hey, don’t go and sit down just yet. There’s one more car pulling up outside.”

            “What?” Invel turned and raised an eyebrow at her. “I thought you only invited the eight of us. Plus yourself and those two.”

            “No. Two more.” Irene smirked at the confused guests. “Just wait for a moment. You’ll see.”

            The door swung open, and two figures stepped in, clad in scarves and coats. Larcade stood, dumbfounded, for a long moment – before he rushed to greet them.

            “Mother! August!”

            “Larcade!”

            Smiling, Irene strode over to stand next to Invel, watching the three hug and greet each other excitedly.

            Larcade pulled back, his eyes sparkling. “How did you get out? What happened? Are you okay now? How have things been?”

            August shook his head. “One question at a time, Larcade.”

            “We finally managed to call the police right after you were kicked out.” Mavis grinned up at him. “Zeref’s in police custody and awaiting trial right now. We’ve been staying with Natsu out in the country.”

            “That’s wonderful!” Larcade pulled them into another tight embrace. “I’m so glad you’re both safe now. But… what happens if Father somehow manages to convince them that he’s innocent? Or if he gets out of jail?”

            August smiled. “It won’t matter. He has no idea where we are. Even if he does find out, I don’t know how he would reach us.” He glanced over Larcade’s shoulder and into the dining room. “So… should we go and sit down?”

            “Of course. Let’s go.”

 

“Ajeel, get your feet off the table! Brandish, don’t touch the food until everyone has a plate. And – Wahl, no, you can’t carve the turkey. Put the knife down!”

            Though it took a long time to get everyone in order, they finally managed to serve the food. The group was upon it almost immediately, heaping plenty of the various dishes onto their empty plates.

            Looking extremely pleased with herself, Irene slipped into the free seat between Jacob and Bloodman, before practically diving onto the turkey.

            Dinner lasted a while, among much conversation and the occasional cheer. Only a few bits of food flew across the table – thankfully; the trio had been preparing for a full-on food fight.

             Unfortunately, even without a food fight, such a large group would always manage to make a mess one way or another.

            “Bye! Happy holidays!”

            A smiling Irene waved to Serena – the last guest to leave, along with Wahl and Neinhart – as they pulled out of the driveway.

            She turned back to the dinner table. “Hmm. This is a mess…”

            “Indeed.” Jacob sighed.

            Irene shook her head and began stuffing what remained of the ingredients back into her purse. “You know, a cleaning staff comes in here to clear up after anyone rents it anyway… should we just head home?”

            “I hate to say it, but that seems a little too cruel.” Bloodman glanced along the length of the table. “Besides, most of these dishes are ours. We can’t just take them home when they’re this much of a mess.”

            “You two could always clean them yourselves while I… pick up all the ingredients we brought.”

            Jacob turned and glared at her. “Irene. You said you’d stop pushing people around.”

            She hesitated. “…Fine. I’ll help you with the dishes.” Irene strode toward the table and began picking up as many plates and trays as she could carry. “What about the spare food? Do we throw it out?”

            “I don’t think there’s much food left over.” Bloodman turned back to the table. “I can eat anything that _is_ there, though…”

            “What are you, a bottomless pit?”

            Chattering among the clanging of dishes, they headed into the kitchen to clean up.

 

Darkness had fallen by the time they finished the dishes. Irene stepped into her car, glancing out the window to make sure Jacob and Bloodman were heading to their own vehicles. She rolled down the window. “Hey! You two!”

            Jacob nearly leapt a foot off the ground. Bloodman turned toward her, looking vaguely irritated. “What is it?”

            “Merry Christmas.” Irene rolled the window back up and began backing out of the drive, not even giving them a chance to respond.

            Jacob shook his head, stepping into his own car. “Why is she in such a rush?”

            “Probably wants to head home and rest.” Bloodman started up his engine. “Anyway, we should be heading home, too. And merry Christmas.”

            “Merry Christmas.”

            Without another word, they both pulled out of the driveway and drove in opposite directions down the street, back to their homes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy holidays!


End file.
